Design and control of autonomous surface vehicle

Project Title

Design and control of autonomous surface vehicle

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) which are usually smaller boats used for practical applications like surveillance or data acquisition of water environments, saving drowned people from the lakes. In this project, We will design and develop the ASV which will be remotely controlled from the surface. the system is designed to organize autonomous performing of mission defined from ground control station.  We will conduct mathematical modeling, will design the ASV in 3D design software. Later on, will fabricate the proposed model. The internal components for controlling motion and direction of the ASV will also be fitted in the fabricated model. The mathematical model will be simulated and will be compared with experimental results. We will obtain result of simulation, hardware and software implementation of autonomous surface vehicle and its navigation and control system as well as experiment results will be performed.

Project Objectives

To study the mathematical model of the proposed design

To simulate the mathematical model in MATLAB for trajectory racking in surge and sway the direction

To design the model in CAD and fabricate the vessel for fitting the motion-controlled components

To conduct experiments of the desired vessel for surge and sway direction and trajectory tracking

Project Implementation Method

In this project, dynamic model of ASV will be studied. In order to better facilitate the modeling design, ASV is assumed to be moved in ideal fluid, and the mass is uniformly distributed. When building the reference frame, an origin of ASV body coordinates coincides with the center of gravity, and both the center of gravity and buoyancy are perpendicular to the Z-axis. In physical design, ASV will be set to be port-starboard symmetrical; hence surge subsystem and sway-yaw subsystem are essentially decoupled.

The propulsion system of ASV consists of two propellers derived by two electric-powered motors. By the force and steering torque control, ASV can keep moving in the condition of surge, sway, and yaw. Because, in this structure of three appreciable degrees of freedom, only two degrees can be actuated, ASV under this structure is under-actuated.

The twin-hull vessel will be designed and will be fabricated from fiberglass. The vessel structure consists of two inflatable pontoons, two motor pods, a payload tray, and two supporting arches. The vehicles will be designed to provide a stable platform that can ease the effects of waves. The vehicle will be capable of demonstrates motion in surge and sway during operation, which can only apply control force and torque in surge and yaw. Because the steering scheme will only actuate in two of the three appreciable degrees of freedom, the ASV is underactuated.

The design will allow a considerable space to mount the necessary equipment to achieve a wide range of tasks, and also for carrying a large battery box, providing a longer range of operation.

In the platform implementation, two brushless motors will be purchased. The motors will be selected on the weight and proposed power required for pushing the vessels. The thrusters will come with both clockwise and counter-clockwise propellers to counter torque along the sway direction in the b-fixed frame.

Benefits of the Project

It appears that currently, there is a great need to shift a portion of the tasks which are carried out in harbors and coastal areas, in particular, from manned units to unmanned surface vessels. Those tasks in the security area are:

Taking out submerged bodies, 

 own forces protection.

 reconnaissance.

 sea mines hunting, detection, and destruction.

anti-submarine warfare (ASW);

state sea security;

surface warfare prosecution;

support of special forces operations;

seabed mapping;

radio-electronic warfare prosecution;

support of secret sea operations;

coastal areas, rivers mouth operations, etc.;

towing targets during small-caliber artillery exercises.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

In this project, we will develop an ASV, which will be equipped with GPS receivers for autonomous waypoint following and trajectory tracking.  It will have a large payload capacity to carry sufficient equipment for some high demanding missions.  The project includes dynamic modeling of the USV platform, design, some deeplearning methods for surface object detection.  The developed system will have the potential for real-life applications such as identifying approaching vehicles to alert the ground station and exploring the surrounding environment to assigned locations. 

The power system contains a thruster and rudder.  It will be powered by a 3-cell LiPobattery and can reach a maximum cruising speed of 5m/s.  we  need  a  stable  platform  being  able  to  take  large payload,

The design will allow enough space to mount the necessary equipment to achieve a wide range of tasks, and also allows for carrying a large battery box, providing a longer range of operation.  It is crucial to consider the power requirements when select suitable thrusters. The battery will be purchased which can support the ASV traveling at up to 30 min at full speed.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry ManufacturingOther IndustriesCore Technology RoboticsOther TechnologiesSustainable Development GoalsRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	70000
Brushless motors	Equipment	2	6500	13000
Fiberglass body	Equipment	1	25000	25000
GPS	Equipment	1	7000	7000
IMU	Equipment	1	12000	12000
Arduino	Equipment	1	4000	4000
Other components	Miscellaneous	3	3000	9000